A critical analysis of the interactions of the corporeal body with bodies of knowledge; focusing on spatial, technological and communicative shifts

This project argues for the importance of considering contemporary corporeality in light of new structures of knowledge, focusing on space and time, communication, and science and technology and looks for evidence of shifts in these areas at a qualitative, experiential level. Structures of knowledge are in the process of radical transformation which correspond with shifts in three key areas - space, language and technology. Central to these shifts are alterations to the ways we understand and experience our subjective and bodily location. This argument is developed in the context of the Enlightenment, where these key factors are explored as fundamental to significant transformations in explanations and experiences of corporeality. The interaction between new ways of knowing the world and ways of knowing corporeality in the historical analysis is demonstrated in order to establish the validity of four main research questions in a contemporary context. These are: firstly, in what ways do current configurations of space, language and technology suggest an altered corporeal experience? Secondly, how might new scientific/technological models, and particularly cartographies, inform explanations of corporeality? Thirdly, in what ways might corporeal experience be seen to be revalidated within emergent contemporary structures of knowledge? And finally, to look for places where qualitative evidence of a new experience of corporeality might be demonstrated. The first chapter examines new technologies, new forms of communication, and the processes of globalisation to show firstly that the key factors which led to radical alterations to corporeality in the past are present and secondly to show the prevalence and significance of disruptions to scale, location and boundaries in a contemporary context. Chapters Two and Three demonstrate in depth the interactions of space, language in defining the body. Chapter Four examines twentieth/twenty first century science to demonstrate a departure from classical science and outline the dramatically new models for explaining the world that these provide. In conclusion it is argued that corporeality is refigured materially, conceptually and perceptually in relation to emergent ways of knowing the world and that the authority of the imaginary and of the tactile in contemporary thought is indicative of a new validation of corporeal knowledge. It is suggested that by examining the science and experience of medical imaging techniques a qualitatively different experience of corporeality might be demonstrated, where concepts of interiority and exteriority and oflocation are transformed in powerful correspondence with transformations in space, language and technology